Optical fibers have been utilized in industrial applications as a simple means for guiding a laser beam from a laser source to a work station where a workpiece to be drilled, cut, or otherwise machined is located. However, the use of optical fibers for transmitting high power laser energy in a production environment requires a safety system to rapidly cease laser operation in the event of a catastrophic failure of the fiber and therefore prevent high energy laser leakage from damaging neighboring hardware or personnel.
Conventional safety systems which directly monitor laser energy emitted from the output end of the fiber are disadvantageous in that space may not be available at the output end of the fiber for positioning the necessary sensing apparatus, the sensing apparatus may reduce the power delivered to the laser operation, or apparatus placed in the path of a high power laser beam may be susceptible to damage inflicted by the laser beam. Additionally, such a system would be unable to differentiate between a fiber failure and the failure of another component in the laser operation, such as the laser source.